A report providing an overview and update in respect of the Herefordshire Corporate Parenting Board.

 

The Service Director Early Help, QA and Prevention provided an overview of the report, highlighting a number of key points.

 

·       Following the local elections in May 2023, the Corporate Parenting Board had reviewed its terms of reference and membership, these were endorsed by the board at its meeting on 16 August 2023.

·       The board had met in August 2023, October 2023 and January 2024, its next meeting was scheduled for 13 March 2024.

·       The new terms of reference gave the board a wider membership in relation to: officers of the council, elected members and partner agencies.

·       The revised membership had brought a renewed focus to the board and a richness in relation to discussion and areas of specific focus - particularly in understanding the experience of children in care and care leavers.

·       The board had been well supported by the Local Government Association who had facilitated two workshops for members, one in November 2023 and one in January 2024. The board had completed a self-assessment exercise as part of the work, which would be reviewed at future board meetings.

·       One key outcome from the workshops had been the measuring of confidence of members of the Corporate Parenting Board. A brief survey had been undertaken following the first workshop in November, which indicated that over 70% of members felt confident in discharging their statutory responsibilities, further surveys would be undertaken going forward.

·       The Corporate Parenting Strategy had a number of key priorities including: homes and housing, health and well-being, learning, development and having fun, relationships, identity, belonging, listening, hearing and understanding children in care and care leavers, safe and protected Independence in adulthood. The Corporate Parenting Operational Group, which was a multi-agency group, was overseeing the implementation of the priorities and the strategy was due to be renewed as a result of the two most recent visits by Ofsted.

·       The timings of the Corporate Parenting Board had been amended to allow for engagement with the service’s children in care and care leavers. At the most recent meeting in January the board received a presentation from the participation worker in terms of some of the co-production that had been happening with children in care and care leavers. Two young people were expected to attend the 13 March board meeting as part of the widening of its membership.

·       Regarding types of information used to understand the circumstances of children in care and care leavers, the board now receives regular performance reports that look at: the numbers of children in care, their circumstances, where they are living, the support for accompanied asylum seeking children, whether young people are in suitable accommodation and their status in relation to education, employment and training. The board also looked at the duration of children who are in care.

·       The board was focusing on children in care and young people in care, care leavers as parents and the service’s role as corporate grandparents.

·       The Virtual Head was a regular member and a standing member of the Corporate Parenting Board and would be making a presentation during the 13 March meeting on the latest outcomes for children in care and care leavers.

·       At the last Corporate Parenting Board meeting in January, the focus had been on: sufficiency for children in care and care leavers, the quality of accommodation, unaccompanied asylum seeking children and supported accommodation for 16-17 year olds who were care leavers.

 

The Service Director Early Help, QA and Prevention talked through a series of slides relating to the Corporate Parenting Board, covering off:

 

-        Corporate Parenting Board Membership

-        Elected Member attendance

-        Work Programme January 2024 – November 2024

-        Corporate Parenting Plan: Education

-        Corporate Parenting Plan: Impact

-        Care Leavers in Employment, Education or Training (EET) data

-        Engagement and Participation, including ‘You said, We Did’

-        Placement type data

-        Care Leavers in Suitable Accommodation data

 

 

The report was opened up for discussion

 

1.     In response to a question from The Committee, the Service Director for Early Help, QA and Prevention explained that educational attainment of care leavers in Herefordshire was measured by the virtual school and that information relating to this would be included in the virtual school autumn report.

 

2.     The Committee enquired why the Corporate Parenting Board papers were not public and asked what assurances could be given that the board was functioning as intended.

 

o   The Corporate Director for Children and Young People explained that the decision to not make the board a corporate body - with public meetings - was a local constitutional issue and that different councils could choose whether or not to make the Corporate Parenting Board a corporate body. The director explained that he was happy to work with the chair of the Corporate Parenting Board to ensure that the papers were shared openly and widely.

 

3.     The Committee expressed concerns about the 50% figure of 19-21 year olds in employment and the Key Stage 4 performance figures provided.

 

o   The Service Director for Early Help, QA and Prevention pointed out in response, that the Key Stage 4 figures did compare favourably against national figures, but that every young person was unique in their needs and that some young people had suffered extensive trauma, which impacted on their learning, development and key stage achievements. It was pointed out that the virtual school was aware of issues impacting the development of local young people and that this shaped and informed additional support measures being put in place on an ongoing basis.

 

4.     The Committee asked if, in addition to internships/shadowing roles, whether the service provided work experience positions for young people.

 

o   The Corporate Director for Children and Young People responded by highlighting that work experience was provided partly through the mainstream schools and Virtual School Champion. The virtual school provided the Corporate Parenting Board with detailed information on this and work experience was considered very important in helping young people formulate their plans and their careers.

o   The Service Director for Early Help, QA and Prevention pointed out that corporate parenting ambassadors and champions also played and would continue to play a key role in helping to deliver opportunities in relation to apprenticeships and shadowing opportunities.

 

5.     The Committee enquired as to whether there was a system of additional wraparound support in place for children in the education system who had suffered trauma, to ensure that they achieved the grades they were capable of while in the education system - as there wasn’t always a second chance to go back around and try again later when they were in a better position.

 

o   The Corporate Director for Children and Young people pointed out that there were examples where people had returned to the education system when they were in a better place and had achieved their full academic potential, however the director agreed that there was a definite need for timely support for children who had been traumatised and assisting them in gaining access to education at the right time. It was also suggested that the Committee might want to revisit the work of the virtual school at some point during the coming year, as it could provide a different context to the discussion.

 

Action: Add a visit to the virtual school for consideration as part of the work programme.

 

6.     The Committee was in support of councillors using their life experience to provide opportunities for looked after children, and to act as ambassadors within their local communities to encourage local business and organisations to provide meaningful opportunities for young people.

 

7.     The Committee suggested that communications from the Council (such as business rate/council tax bills) to local businesses and organisations could contain a statement asking whether they could do anything to support looked after young people in the County by providing work experience or job opportunities for them. It was also suggested that networks within the local authority and its contractors should be being exploited to their full potential.

 

o   The Corporate Director for Children and Young People stated that the corporate leadership team was currently looking at enablers for the Improvement Plan - these would extend and develop the range of apprenticeships that might be available across the whole of the council and its contractors – with a view to creating apprenticeships and learning opportunities for children in care and care leavers. The director noted the suggestion about a leaflet/message being included with council tax bills and stated that it would be given consideration.

 

8.     The Committee noted that the Local Government Association training module contained a number of pointers about what a good local authority might do in relation to corporate parenting, these included making corporate parenting updates a standing item at full council and introducing a mechanism by which members of the council could write cards to looked after children celebrating their successes.

 

9.     In response to a question from the Committee about the Corporate Parenting Strategy 2022-2024 attached as Appendix 1 to the main report, the Service Director for Safeguarding and Family Support clarified that it was the current strategy and not a draft (as stated at para 8 of the main report). It was explained that the strategy was going to be refreshed and made more aspirational, with greater input from young people and parents.

 

10.  The Committee asked if the forward plan could be updated to reflect when the updated strategy would be coming forward. The Committee also suggested that the updated document would benefit from more ‘down to earth’ language and terminology.

 

11.  The Committee requested sight of the action plan that went alongside the strategy.

 

o   The Service Director for Safeguarding and Family Support responded that they would be happy to provide the Committee with the plan and would welcome feedback on it.

 

 

12.  The Committee asked how much work had been done in relation to life stories.

 

o   The Service Director, Safeguarding and Family Support explained that there were many different types of life story work. One area that had previously come in for criticism from Ofsted was that work around a child’s life journey wasn’t always being adequately evidenced on file. To remedy this, a full training programme for relevant staff had been conducted. Staff from areas of the service that had excelled in evidencing life story information were working with and supporting other managers to ensure a high standard was achieved and maintained in all areas

o   In relation to the more therapeutic life story work - which was typically a longer term piece of work carried out with young people who had gone through traumatic experiences - the service wanted to move away from its current spot purchase provision model and build an established relationship with a dedicated provider. The service was working with finance and commissioning to achieve this ambition going forward.

 

13.  The Committee suggested that a recommendation regarding the introduction of some element of public visibility within the Corporate Parenting Board meetings might be useful in helping to share the work being done as part of the improvement journey.

 

14.  The Committee enquired about Appendix 6 contained within the Corporate Parenting Board Strategy 2022 - 2024 and asked for clarity as to the role of the elected members sitting on the Corporate Parenting Board.

 

 

o   The Corporate Director provide an assurance that they would clarify the wording in the updated strategy in order to clearly outline what was expected from the elected members sitting on the board.

 

15.  The Committee asked if the voice of children in care and care leavers was influencing policy and service provision through the board in a sufficient way and whether there was more that could be done in enabling children in care and care leavers to influence decision makers, strategies and development plans in Herefordshire.

 

o   The Service Director for Early Help, QA and Prevention stated that the service had a renewed commitment from the Corporate Parenting Board to directly hear the voices and lived experience of young people. The Service Director for Safeguarding and Family Support had been working with a small group of young people in terms of supporting them to attend the board on 13 March, so that they could feed in their views.

o   There were other areas where young people had started to influence operational delivery, such as: co-producing pathway plans, challenging the service’s offer for unaccompanied asylum seeking children and engaging with partner agencies in terms of co-producing health passports for care leavers.

o   There was more work to do in terms of how to support and enable young people to feel comfortable and confident in being able to attend in person and engage with the wider membership of the board. The refreshed strategy would be encouraging more of a co-productive way of working with children and young people.

 

 

16.  The Committee enquired at to what lessons had been learned in relation to listening to and including the voices of young people.

 

o   The Service Director for Early Help, QA and Prevention noted that historically the groups of children engaged with had been too small and did not necessarily reflect the diversity of experience of young people. There was also a need to properly prepare young people so that they would be able to actively engage and challenge the service in relation to how it needed to improve. It was acknowledged that reports needed to be written in a more accessible and down-to-earth format.

o   The service had been running the Coram BAAF Bright Spots survey, which was expected to return a report in the next few weeks. The feedback would hopefully provide a good understanding of the issues that were important to children in care and care experienced young people. The results would be used to inform the work of the Corporate Parenting Board and the refresh of the Corporate Parenting Strategy and action plan.

 

 

 

17.  The Committee asked what systems were in place to gather, manage and collate information from the many face-to-face and day-to-day interactions between young people in the Council’s care and the various different agencies and partners involved. It was asked whether young people participating and engaging with the Corporate Parenting Board and other bodies could gain access to information that would enable them to synthesise the kind of issues that they needed to represent on behalf of other young people.

 

o   The Corporate Director for Children and Young People explained that there was now a Children in Care Council and that the Young Person's Council had met for the first time on 12 March 2024. Regarding bringing information from various face-to-face engagements across the service together, so that it could be synthesised into clear accessible messaging, that was a work in progress.

o   Young people were currently helping the service in terms of co-producing the Participation Strategy and one message coming through had been to ‘just get on with things’.

o   Young people had highlighted there was a need for clarity of communication and avoidance of prematurely announcing initiatives that were months/years away, which raised expectations and then led to disappointment.

 

18.  The Committee noted that a visit from local school children to observe the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee at work had been agreed in principle.

 

19.  The Committee noted that the tone of the writing style adopted in sections of the Corporate Parenting Strategy did not come across as genuine and might not be accessible to young people. It suggested this was something to consider when the strategy was being refreshed.

 

Resolved: That it be recommended to the executive that:

 

1.     Herefordshire Council to suggest proposals to make Corporate Parenting Board meetings more accessible to elected members and the public

 

2.     Herefordshire Council to extend opportunities to write letters and cards celebrating the success of its looked after children.

 

 

Resolved: That the Committee approve the proposed meeting dates for 2024/25:

 

7 May 2024, 30 July 2024, 17 September 2024, 26 November 2024, 21 January 2025 and 18 March 2025.